Author: Kevin Lewis O’Neill, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto - Personal Website

Abstract: »Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Latin America became something of a dumping ground for U.S. priests suspected of sexual abuse, with north-to-south clerical transfers sending predatory priests to countries where pedophilia did not exist in any kind of ontological sense. This article, in response, engages the case of Father David Roney of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. After a career of accusations and payouts, with Roney entering and exiting Church-mandated therapy programs, Bishop Raymond Lucker retired this notoriously predatory priest to rural Guatemala in 1994. By placing Roney beyond the reach of psychiatrists, psychologists, and spiritual directors, the Roman Catholic Church leveraged a psychological and juridical difference between two geographical settings in order to render the pedophilia of this priest effectively non-existent, thereby insulating itself from further reputational damage and additional litigation. Given that the Roman Catholic Church has long been an empirical point of reference for studies of subject formation—from pastoralism and mysticism to ritual and the confession—this article adds that the Church also provides ample evidence of an opposite process: of unmaking people.« (Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History)

Contents:

	Transferred and Transformed (p. 748)
	Made (p. 751)
	Making (p.754)
	Unmaking (p. 757)
	Unmade (p. 760)
	Remade (p. 762)
	Conclusion (p. 764)
	References (p. 765)
		Published Sources (p. 765)
		Archival Sources (p. 768)

Wikipedia: History of the Americas: History of Guatemala | History of the Americas: History of the United States | Catholic Church: Catholic Church in the United States / Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis | Catholic Church: Catholic Church sexual abuse cases / Catholic Church sex abuse cases in the United States | Sex and the law: Child sexual abuse / Child sexual abuse in the United States